Gracie Leaving

Gracie will be leaving us this afternoon. Her forever family is traveling from Pennsylvia to pick her up. This amazes me that someone will drive so far for a pup who is a mix breed with issues.

Deb, the woman I've been working with to find Gracie's forever home came over tonight to take more pics of Gracie and to meet her. She fell head over heels for the pup, despite that Gracie was terribly shy. (although I was proud she did better than I'd expected) She stayed and visited and got to know Gracie for about 2 hrs. During that time Gracie did warm up to letting Deb pet her and feed her treats.

Deb said the forever family called and are iffy. (Deb has another dog, an Irish Setter they're also interested in) But not to worry because even if forever family waffles out, she has another who is very very interested in adopting Gracie. She said there probably would've been more but she removed Gracie from the website once the forever family was vet approved and met all the adoption requirements and arrangments were made to pick up Gracie.

Pick up is still set for tomorrow.

However, Deb kept asking if I was sure I wanted to give Gracie up. She said it's obvious I've grown to love her.

Well, yeah. I have. She is so like my Molly. And lord knows the sun rises and sets on my Molly girl. Guess I couldn't help myself. And for some odd unknown reason, Gracie has recently taken a huge shine to me too. I swear I've done nothing to encourage it. But there it is.

So I'm sad tonight.

Stupid, huh? I didn't want this pup here in the first place.

But loving her doesn't change the situation. We can't afford another pet. We're too overcrowded as it is. And I simply don't have the time to spend giving her the training and such she needs.

She deserves a happy life with a loving family. I know that. I want that. And I'm happy for her. I really am. Because I know she'll be happier in the long run.

But there is gonna be an empty space here for awhile, while we re-adjust to life without Gracie here. The animals are gonna feel it too. Betsy will miss her playmate she's grown so fond of over these past weeks. Molly has grown accustom to animals passing thru.

Just seems so darn foolish to feel this way over a pup I didn't want and tried so hard not to get attached to. *sigh*

Ahhh, Lisa, it's not foolish. I completely understand. We're nurturers. It's what we do. And this little pup needed you so badly.

Little Abbey came to us just a few weeks after my beloved Cassie passed. I told difficult child this was her cat cause I couldn't get attached again. Of course, that didn't last and then when she got really sick a few weeks later, I was the one staying up with her and crying for days on end when it didn't look like she was going to pull through.

As corny as it sounds, you were in her life for a reason - so she could become the pup that could find a forever home instead of growing up unsocialized and unadoptable.

I understand. A few years ago I discovered a 1 week old kitten-a tiny black ball of fluff- in our backyard. I found a home for it right away because we have some serious allergy/sinus issues around here. The only catch was that we had to care for it until he was weaned since he required constant care and the mom worked and I'm at home.

You can imagine the ending by now. A big, black, 20 pound ball of fluff is lying beside me, belly up, one happy cat. But we would have turned him over had the littermates not been found a few days before the handover to his intended home. We looked into fostering kittens because it's so important to have those willing intermediate homes--thanks for giving Gracie a good for awhile home.

Lisa - NL keeps asking if we can be a foster family (he works at a vet's office). I continually say "no".

I just know that I'd wind up keeping every darn dog that came home!!!

So I completely understand. And I also understand not being able to keep Gracie.

I did tell NL that if a particularly "needy" case came along (older dog, really not socialized, etc.) I would "think" about fostering. Of course, I also know I'd probably wind up keeping the dog!!!!
Can you say "sucker"???!!!